Author Archives: tvprasad

Improving Customer metrics

The HBR issue (Jan-Feb 2020)  spotlights “The Loyalty Economy” which makes for a great read for anyone interested in business growth. This three-article series eloquently illustrates how the myopic quarterly investor reporting has stunted long-term growth for many businesses. At the same time, true leaders like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Costco’s Jim Sinegal, and Vanguard’s JackContinue reading “Improving Customer metrics”

3. Extracting a “Yes” out of a “No!”

(This is the third part of the series on Getting stuff done. Click here to read from the beginning) In the previous post, we discussed an example of handling a “No” by finding out a manual workaround where the integration was not critical, at least in the short term. Many times this is not anContinue reading “3. Extracting a “Yes” out of a “No!””

2. Reactive handling: Going around walls

(This is the second part of the series on Getting stuff done. Read from the beginning) “Sorry, we cannot deliver this integration before another 2 months with everything else on our plate” said the VP of the ERP systems. One of my CPG clients had a B2B eCommerce program which depended on the integration intoContinue reading “2. Reactive handling: Going around walls”

1. Proactive risk management

This is a rather simple principle of including contingency in your schedule and delivering the highest risk items early on. However many large enterprises do not seem to like the word contingency in any plan and even if that is approved by all the stakeholders as a formal block of time on the Gantt chart,Continue reading “1. Proactive risk management”

Delivering software on-time in spite of hurdles (Part 1)

Get Stuff Done (GSD) A key trait, — something that I always look for while hiring my team — is the ability to Get Stuff Done. I had been brought in to several rescue efforts where key commitments got delayed in spite of having a technically brilliant team, using Agile, DevOps, etc,  only because theContinue reading “Delivering software on-time in spite of hurdles (Part 1)”

Similarities between English and Sanskritam

How close are English and Sanskritam? Let’s find out. Imagine all the basic English vocabulary you can think of, that would have been in vogue, a few thousand years ago. Juxtapose those words with their Sanskrit equivalents. You will see that they are mostly the same word if you account for slight pronunciation differences overContinue reading “Similarities between English and Sanskritam”

Distributed auditing used successfully a decade before Blockchain to help solve a crime

One of the underlying principal advantages of Blockchain technology (which supports bitcoin) is the concept of distributed ledger (auditing). There is no single point of failure of the audit trail, with the multiple copies floating everywhere and hence it is tamper-proof. Long before this was introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, this concept was successfullyContinue reading “Distributed auditing used successfully a decade before Blockchain to help solve a crime”

Focusing on Value, removing clutter!

Recently we started working with the IT division of a large client that embarked upon their digital transformation journey. Before we got engaged by the IT side,  the business side of the client was working with a ‘big 5’ consulting firm for the last 2 years to help them define that journey. They were tryingContinue reading “Focusing on Value, removing clutter!”